Economics Department Newsletter

April 11, 2016

Upcoming Seminars and Events:

Economics Class of 1960 Scholars Seminar
Monday, April 11
4:00pm; Griffin 6Is there an Nth of the Month Effect? The Timing of SNAP Issuance, Food Expenditures, and Grocery Prices by Tatiana Homonoff, Assistant Professor in the Department for Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell UniversityNetworking Session with Rachel Cohn and Sarah Collins
Tuesday, April 12
4:00pm - 5:30pm; Mears Lewis Room
"Rachel Cohn is the Americas Lead for Facebook’s Global Brand Partnerships, where she works with global brands and their agencies to grow their businesses with world-class mobile marketing. She graduated Williams in 97 with a degree in Economics and Political Science and received an MBA from Wharton. Sarah Collins is the Executive Editor of Real Simple Magazine. Sarah has focused on evolving and expanding the reach of the award-winning national magazine and brand at-large. She graduated from Williams in 97 with a degree in English. Following the networking session will be a dinner and panel discussion from 6:00pm-8:30pm in Dodd House Dining Room/Living Room."Presentation by Yvonne Hao (Bain Capital's Operating Partner and interim CEO)
Thursday, April 14
5:00pm - 6:00pm; Griffin 4
"Yvonne Hao is an alum who majored in Economics and Asian studies in 1995. She is also a current trustee of Williams College and started her career in business in 1997. She has worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, as a General Manager at Honeywell, and is currently an Operating Partner and an interim CEO at Bain Capital. Please join Women in Business for this wonderful opportunity to meet a powerful women leader, learn more about the private equity world, and ask questions."Yemen: War Impact and Horizons for Peace
Friday, April 15
4:00pm; Griffin 6
"This conversation will cover the political and historical background behind Yemen's current chaos. It will provide an analytical view of the current players, parties and groups fighting in Yemen. More importantly, it will cover the regional dynamics behind Yemen's current war and the role of western countries and powers in war and peace.
Farea Al-Muslimi is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, where his research focuses on Yemeni and Gulf politics. Al-Muslimi is the co-founder and chairman of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, a youth-led think tank that aims to bring new perspectives to Yemeni and regional affairs. He has worked as a researcher and consultant for the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and other international and local organizations. He is a frequent media commentator and has appeared on Al Jazeera English, CNN, BBC, Democracy Now! and NPR. He has written for publications including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the National, Al-Monitor, and Assafir."

If you are interested in being a TA for the Economics Department in Fall 2016, please apply here by Friday, April 15 at noon (12:00pm). To access the application, please log in using your short form email address (e.g., abc1@williams.edu). Late applications will not be accepted.

We will need TAs in ECON 110, 120, 251, 252, 255, 233, 364, 472, 501, 502, 503, 504 and POEC 253. There may also be TA positions open in other economics classes.

Meet the Thesis Writer:
Michael Navarrete"My thesis is trying to measure the effect of H-1B workers (high-skilled immigrants) on natives' (Americans') wages. I am trying to see if H-1B workers act as substitutes or complements for natives. I am also trying to see if there are differential effects of H-1B workers on low-skilled and high-skilled natives. I became interested in economics my senior year of high school when I took AP macroeconomics. I immediately connected with the way economists thought of problems in terms of opportunity costs."

Meet the Alum:
Julia Brown, Class of 2005"I am currently working for Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), an international research non-profit that seeks to discover and promote effective solutions to global poverty. IPA partners with academic and policy researchers (mostly economists) and service providers to conduct rigorous analysis and evaluation of poverty alleviation programs. I oversee the US Finance Initiative, which focuses on developing and testing financial products and services that meet the needs of low-income households in the United States. Prior to joining IPA, I worked to evaluate business training, microcredit, and microinsurance programs in San Francisco, New York City, Guayaquil, Ecuador, and Chiapas, Mexico. My economics degree from Williams was essential in getting me to where I am. It taught me the fundamentals in statistics and analysis that I use daily, and gave me an understanding of economic theory, which I use regularly when interacting with researchers and developing new research designs to test the effectiveness of programs."